Senior Data Modeler – Integration & Events

ZipStaff Inc.; Washington (District of Columbia); On-site; USD 110,000 - 179,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health Insurance

Dental Insurance

Vision Insurance

401(k) + matching

Paid time off

Referral Program

Job summary

ZipStaff seeks a Senior Data Modeler to govern data models and event contracts bridging legacy systems with modern architectures. You will lead canonical models, governance, and schema standards across Kafka environments to ensure reliable data exchange for mission‑critical rail and transit platforms.

You will collaborate with architects, engineers, and business SMEs to translate complex business rules into reusable data definitions, while ensuring security and governance policies are followed.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Engineering, or related field.
• 8+ years of hands‑on data modeling for enterprise systems.
• Mastery of data modeling concepts: grain, normalization, and temporal dating.
• Experience with Kafka and Confluent Schema Registry.
• Experience defining semantic naming standards and metadata dictionaries.
• Knowledge of distributed architectures and API integration.
• Excellent communication and stakeholder facilitation.
• On-site in Washington, DC.

Responsibilities

• Design and maintain conceptual, logical, and physical data models across data at rest and data in motion.
• Govern event contracts and API schemas using Kafka Schema Registry, enforcing compatibility and standards.
• Define canonical information models, shared entities, and enterprise naming conventions per standards.
• Reverse-engineer legacy systems to support modernization and data integration.
• Ensure end‑to‑end traceability between business concepts, logical models, physical schemas, and event streams.
• Review designs for data integrity, normalization tradeoffs, and security/compliance.
• Lead modeling working sessions with business and technical stakeholders.

Skills

Data modeling

Kafka

Schema Registry

ISO 11179-5

Data governance

Stakeholder facilitation

Communication skills

Education

Bachelor’s degree in CS/IS/Engineering

Tools

Kafka

Schema Registry

Job description

Job Title

Senior Data Modeler – Integration & Events

Location

Washington, DC (On-site)

Employment Type

Contract (W2 through ZipStaff — No C2C or 1099)

About the Opportunity

ZipStaff is seeking a Senior Data Modeler – Integration & Events to serve as a key technical authority across the Transportation Operations portfolio for a leading transportation organization.

In this role, you will define and govern conceptual, logical, and physical data models, shared semantic standards, and event/API contracts to bridge legacy systems (including mainframe) with modern distributed architectures. By standardizing canonical models, managing schema lifecycles, and establishing formal data contracts in Kafka/Confluent environments, you will ensure reliable, interoperable, and scalable data exchange across mission-critical rail and transit operational platforms. This is an on-site role in Washington, DC.

What You’ll Do

• Design, implement, and maintain conceptual, logical, and physical data models for operational data at rest and data in motion across relational, NoSQL, and event-driven systems.
• Lead the definition, evolution, and governance of standardized event contracts and API schemas using Kafka Schema Registry, enforcing compatibility modes, schema references, and consumer-impact standards.
• Establish and govern canonical information models, shared operational entities, authoritative definitions, relationships, and naming conventions aligned with enterprise standards (such as ISO/IEC 11179-5).
• Reverse-engineer and analyze legacy operational systems—including mainframe environments—to support target-state modernization and seamless data integration.
• Partner with solution architects, application engineers, business SMEs, and data integration teams to maintain end-to-end traceability between business concepts, logical models, physical schemas, and event streams.
• Review database and schema designs to verify data integrity, normalization tradeoffs, history/effective dating structures, and compliance with enterprise security and governance policies.
• Facilitate modeling working sessions to translate complex transportation business rules into reusable, consistent technical definitions across systems.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Engineering, or a related technical discipline.
• 8+ years of hands‑on data modeling experience designing enterprise conceptual, logical, and physical schemas for mission‑critical, highly integrated transactional or operational systems.
• Proven mastery of data modeling fundamentals, including grain definition, key strategies, normalization/denormalization trade‑offs, constraints, temporal/effective dating, and state management across both Relational and NoSQL platforms.
• Hands‑on experience with Kafka and Confluent Schema Registry, with practical knowledge of subjects, schema evolution rules, compatibility modes, and reusable event contracts.
• Demonstrated track record establishing governed semantic naming standards, metadata dictionaries, and enterprise data models (exposure to ISO/IEC 11179-5 principles preferred).
• Strong understanding of distributed architectures, middleware, API integration, and hybrid legacy‑to-cloud migration patterns (mainframe exposure is a plus).
• Excellent communication, documentation, and stakeholder facilitation skills.
• Ability to work on‑site in Washington, DC.

Preferred Qualifications

• Domain experience in transportation, railroad, logistics, transit, aviation, or utilities.
• Experience reverse‑engineering mainframe systems for modernization and data integration.
• Familiarity with enterprise data governance standards such as ISO/IEC 11179-5.
• Experience facilitating modeling sessions with business and technical stakeholders in complex operational environments.

Benefits

• Health Insurance.
• Dental Insurance.
• Vision Insurance.
• 401(k) + 401(k) matching.
• Paid time off.
• Referral Program.

About ZipStaff

ZipStaff partners with leading organizations to connect skilled technology professionals with high-impact contract opportunities. We focus on quality matches, clear communication, and long-term success for candidates and clients.